Bearcats Picked as Overwhelming AAC Favorites

AAC media day brought the release of the AAC media poll. The first year of the 12 team, two division league projections saw the Cincinnati Bearcats as the overwhelming favorite. UC is not only the favorite to win the East division, but the entire league.

The Bearcats pulled down 29 of 30 votes, the other going to Central Florida, to earn the status of hands down pick to win the East.

Cincinnati received 22 of the 30 votes to win the entire league. Memphis received 5, Houston 2 and UCF 1. The championship game is hosted by the team with the best record. Since that’s projected to be the Bearcats during the regular season, the media thinks hosting the title game will push them over the edge. Most of them at least. One person doesn’t even think they’ll participate.

That’s all for good reason as well. The Bearcats bring back one of the best offenses in the nation. An offense that should only get better with continuity and experience. With Gunner Kiel as one of the top 15 or so returning quarterbacks and none of the other contenders having that kind of talent at the quarterback position, it’s hard to bet on some of the other squads.

Digging into the voting a little bit, Cincinnati are the clear favorites in the East. The matchup in Cincinnati on Halloween between the Bearcats and UCF will probably determine the division. The drop off in points between Cincinnati and UCF was bigger than the drop in points between UCF, who was picked second, and East Carolina, who was picked fourth.

The next three in the division are a bit muddled. Central Florida getting a first place vote pulled them ahead from Temple and East Carolina. ECU is going to be a major mystery this season with all that they’ve lost, both in terms of players and in coaches.

Temple looks like a program on the upswing, but they are Temple sooooooooo.

Rounding out the East, just like they will this upcoming season, are South Florida and Connecticut. Connecticut received only 42 points, the fewest in the entire league. They only received 42 points because they had to. USF received 53, which was the third lowest total.

The West was a lot more top heavy in voting. Despite being the second favorite in the league, Memphis was barely the favorite in their division. The Tigers received 13 first places votes and 153 total points, just edging out the Houston Cougars who pulled 10 first place votes and 149 points. Houston was only a point ahead of Navy, who finished with 7 first place votes and 148 points.

Those three schools were the top three in every ballot, just not in the same order obviously. Navy is going to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch with their option system. How teams will adapt and how Navy will counter is going to be interesting to see over the course of an entire season.

Houston hosts Cincinnati, then both Memphis and Navy in the span of 20 days in November. Tom Herman’s squad is getting a whole lot of buzz as we get closer to the season. It is probably not the worst thing that UC doesn’t play them for a few years after this upcoming season. We’ve seen the Cougs fold under pressure in each of the last two seasons. Now with some real expectations, handling them will be a challenge.

Memphis, of course, won the league (along with UC and UCF) a season ago. As long as Justin Fuente is on the sideline, they are going to be a viable threat. With Paxton Lynch back, the offense should be stable. It’s going to be a bit of a chore to replace some of the talent they lost a year ago however.

Tulane, SMU and Tulsa round out the West. Tulsa must be bad if they are picked behind SMU because did you even watch SMU last year?

Here are the full vote breakdowns from the AAC, as well as the Cincinnati excerpt from the release.

2015 AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
PRESEASON FOOTBALL MEDIA POLL

American Championship
       Team                                        Points
Cincinnati                                              22
Memphis                                               5
Houston                                                2
UCF                                                        1

East Division
       Team (First-Place Votes)          Points
1.      Cincinnati (29)                                     179
2.      UCF (1)                                                  135
3.      Temple                                                  116
4.      East Carolina                                       105
5.      USF                                                        53
6.      UConn                                                   42

West Division
       Team (First-Place Votes)          Points
1.      Memphis (13)                                      153
2.      Houston (10)                                        149
3.      Navy (7)                                                148
4.      Tulane                                                   74
5.      SMU                                                       59
6.      Tulsa                                                      47

first-place votes in parentheses

Cincinnati has won at least nine games seven times in the last eight years and has reached double digits in wins five times in that stretch. The Bearcats have finished 9-4 in each of Tommy Tuberville’s first two seasons on the Cincinnati sideline and won a share of the American Athletic Conference title last year with a 7-1 league mark. Cincinnati returns 15 starters from last year, including quarterback Gunner Kiel, who threw a league-leading 31 touchdown passes in 2014. Kiel has his top seven receivers back from last season and will be protected by an offensive line that has 76 career starts to its credit. The Bearcats also expect a boost from their return to Nippert Stadium, which underwent an $86 million renovation last season.